Hi Jan,
As we head into this week, I want to pause and share my appreciation.
The 3rd Edition of Retirement Planning Guidebook is now available, and it represents the culmination of several years of refining, rethinking, and learning alongside this community. I am thankful to everyone who has followed the book from its earliest editions and to those who continue to engage with the ideas as they evolve.
The article and podcast episode this week reflect many of the same concepts that shaped this update, particularly how tax planning and decision timing influence outcomes. They are meant to complement the book by unpacking the reasoning behind the numbers and the assumptions that drive planning recommendations.
| | | | Time Value of Money and Financial Planning Decisions One of the most important ideas in financial planning is also one of the most misunderstood: the time value of money. At its core, it simply recognizes that a dollar today is not the same as a dollar received in the future. How and when money is received matters, and understanding this concept clarifies many common planning decisions. Even small differences in timing or assumptions can meaningfully change which strategy appears “better,” even when the math is done correctly. This is why seemingly reasonable plans can lead to very different outcomes.
By Retirement Researcher | | | | How to Think About Benchmarking Your Portfolio Performance When it comes to investing, people often want a simple answer to a complex question: How is my portfolio doing? The truth is that most of your results ultimately depend on how you’ve chosen to structure your portfolio. Your choices, such as allocation between stocks and bonds, your balance between U.S. and international markets, and even whether you tilt toward large or small companies, drive the risk and return you experience. Ultimately, your portfolio structure will drive outcomes more than anything else you do day to day.
By McLean Asset Management
| | | | Beyond the Numbers: Mentally Preparing for a Fulfilling Retirement Retirement is often painted as a picture of freedom: long mornings with coffee and no alarm clock, spontaneous travel, time to read, relax, and finally catch up on the things you never had time for. And while all that sounds great, the reality of retirement is a little more nuanced. Once the novelty wears off, many retirees find themselves asking a bigger question: now what?
By McLean Asset Management
| | | | The Math Behind Retirement Decisions (and Why It Matters)
In this episode of Retire With Style, Wade Pfau and Alex Murguia unpack the core financial concepts that sit underneath many retirement planning decisions. They discuss how present value, discount rates, and internal rates of return help make sense of tradeoffs like Social Security timing, pension choices, and investment decisions. The conversation focuses on building intuition around the numbers so listeners can better understand what assumptions are driving recommendations.
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